Sports are in an era where fanboy drivel and appeasement mean as much as (and probably more than) trying to build a winner, especially if it\u2019s not \u201cwin now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans want stars retained indefinitely because they wear that star\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n
Nostalgia.<\/p>\n
Giving a proper send-off.<\/p>\n
Feel-good moments.<\/p>\n
Vibe.<\/p>\n
Aura.<\/p>\n
All that is legitimately important to the citizens. (But complaints still fly if the team loses.)<\/p>\n
The fans want Evgeni Malkin back.<\/p>\n
The captain wants Malkin back.<\/p>\n
The new owners won\u2019t want to look like heartless carpetbaggers by letting Malkin go. (Just like the Fenway Sports Group\u2019s acquisition of the Penguins saved Malkin in 2022.)<\/p>\n
Not re-upping Malkin is what\u2019s best for moving forward, at long last. For implementing a plan that goes beyond next season.<\/p>\n
But for president of hockey ops\/GM Kyle Dubas, it\u2019s not a hill worth dying on.<\/p>\n
The Penguins have got to bring back Malkin, and let him play for as long as Sidney Crosby does. The same applies to Kris Letang, who has two more years left on his contract.<\/p>\n
It guarantees nothing positive beyond feel-good moments, vibe, aura, a barrage of statistical milestones with the attendant ceremonies.<\/p>\n
But this path was cemented long before Dubas got to Pittsburgh. For all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n
Then the Penguins will be the Steelers.<\/p>\n
They probably already are.<\/p>\n
When the Penguins traded Jake Guentzel in 2024, they sandwiched going 1-6-1 around that deal. The dressing room pouted, effectively going on strike. (Those Penguins missed the playoffs by three points. Do the math.)<\/p>\n
If Malkin is allowed to walk, it will be 10 times worse.<\/p>\n
The stench would permeate all season. It would be a topic of discussion for the entirety of the campaign. It would 100% ruin the dressing room.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no real harm in bringing back Malkin. He turns 40 before next season but is still a solid point-producer. Moving to wing minimizes his liabilities.<\/p>\n
But you don\u2019t move forward. Your dressing room becomes a museum. You can\u2019t build on old.<\/p>\n
These Penguins are nowhere close to being a legit contender. That got illuminated by losing a first-round series to their blood rival \u2014 a young, energetic team on the rise \u2014 while never being in danger of winning.<\/p>\n
If Malkin returns, the coming season wouldn\u2019t be a farewell tour. He\u2019d want to play the next season, too.<\/p>\n
The misguided among my peers feel that the core three should be augmented. Win now. Add talent.<\/p>\n
So, how best to do that?<\/p>\n
Dubas would be nuts to trade away future to prop up the aged. It wouldn\u2019t work enough.<\/p>\n
Via free agency, perhaps. The Penguins are projected to have $46 million in salary-cap space. That\u2019s 44% of the anticipated total cap, $104 million.<\/p>\n
But the NHL CBA doesn\u2019t provide unrestricted free agency till age 27 or after seven accrued seasons. Look at the list of UFAs: Claude Giroux, Boone Jenner, Patrick Kane, Alex Tuch. It\u2019s old-timers\u2019 day. The Penguins could hand out a lot of Social Security.<\/p>\n
Signing restricted free agents requires compensation: Give Dallas winger Jason Robertson $12 million per, as he merits, and bid farewell to four first-round picks.<\/p>\n
Dubas could keep making blockbuster trades like when he got Egor Chinakhov. But those deals are hard to make, let alone in quantity.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re told the Penguins won\u2019t again have a top center and top defenseman like Crosby and Erik Karlsson anytime soon.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s correct. Not as long as the Penguins keep finishing in the mushy middle.<\/p>\n
So, re-sign Malkin.<\/p>\n
Who is Dubas to derail the unbreakable bond of eternal brotherhood?<\/p>\n
But everybody involved should then shut up and live with what happens after. Because this is what they wanted. Another first-round exit next year seems the ceiling.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a Penguins lifer. Running it back is OK by me.<\/p>\n
Feel-good, aura, vibe, everything will be hunky-dory except for that part about not winning playoff series \u2014 which the Penguins haven\u2019t done since 2018 \u2014 while digging the hole deeper.<\/p>\n
Malkin\u2019s potential departure has been compared to Andrew McCutchen leaving the Pirates.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s way different.<\/p>\n
To employ a Pirates context, McCutchen is McCutchen while Malkin is Willie Stargell: A Hall-of-Famer who won multiple championships. Malkin\u2019s significance to the logo shouldn\u2019t be lost on anybody.<\/p>\n
McCutchen is already mostly forgotten.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the Pirates are on the rise and have amazing young talent like Paul Skenes and Konnor Griffin. The Penguins don\u2019t. Not like those two.<\/p>\n
So, keep Malkin.<\/p>\n
As long as the core three want to play together with the Penguins, let them.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the corner Dubas finds himself painted into. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports are in an era where fanboy drivel and appeasement mean as much as (and probably more than)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-625253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}